Minimalist advantage?

[mashnut]

Originally Posted by throwfromthewoods

This is a misleading situation to me. I feel like it's a cop-out. If a pro carries 5-7 of a single mold in different states of wear because they make different shots for them, it might as well be 5 different discs. I don't consider that minimalizing your bag.

The difference is that the discs all fly very similarly with the same feel in the hand. If you have a setup of the same mold in different stages of wear, it's much easier to cover a slot if you lose a disc with the same disc slightly more or less beat in than it is to make a completely different mold work for that shot.

[discspeed]

Originally Posted by Moonshine

I was listening to DGTR Live the other day and Feldberg mentioned that he only uses 4-5 main molds. Hearing that from one of the world's very best players cemented my opinion that I only need 4-5 molds. That doesn't mean I'm only using 6 discs on the course. Different plastics, weights, stages of wear etc. can give a lot of flexibility to a "minimalist" bag. Just my opinion. But, I definitely enjoy buying new plastic and trying out new stuff as well

Feldberg carries a lot of "specialty" discs...in fact he totes like 50 around and I'm not exaggerating. This is why he always gives his caddie 10% of his winnings. He uses his core molds to do most things and he has a lot of discs that he only uses for very specific shots (a particular disc for a 375' slight hyzer into a left to right cross/headwind for example). He's an interesting guy to watch, and he doesn't mind explaining what and why.

[discspeed]

Originally Posted by throwfromthewoods

Personally, I'd love to see an A-tier event with a 6-disc cap and see how the pros stack up against each other with that restriction. That would be an pretty interesting tournament, I think.

Originally Posted by BigSky

I bet the results would be very similar to what we see at regular A-tiers.

Originally Posted by onemilemore

Seconded. I think it would really make the pros show off their skills.

I can imagine this and I don't think it would be that interesting...Instead of seeing lines worked perfectly to fit the exact shape of a hole we would see the pros forcing certain lines on holes, not parking too many tough holes, and making a lot of long putts to save their score. They could do it, but it would be boring imo. I'd rather let them decide what to do instead of limiting them. To me making a tough decision about what to throw for a very specific line and condition is part of the mental challenge of golf. Taking those decisions away would not make it more entertaining to watch or fun to play.

[garublador]

The advantage when you're learning is that it forced you to learn more shots with fewer discs. Once you get good at throwing all lines (or are happy with your line shaping skills) with just a few discs then it's worth considering some specialty discs for the reasons discspeed has given. I think sometimes people make it out to be a lot more complicated than it really needs to be.

[MrFixIt]

Originally Posted by TylerM

However, Johnny Depth showed me the new thread button and I thought I'd try it.

Shame on you Johnny!

[tbird888]

Originally Posted by garublador

The advantage when you're learning is that it forced you to learn more shots with fewer discs. Once you get good at throwing all lines (or are happy with your line shaping skills) with just a few discs then it's worth considering some specialty discs for the reasons discspeed has given. I think sometimes people make it out to be a lot more complicated than it really needs to be.

This is why I'm glad it took me a long time to find this site. I spent several years playing with three discs and making them fit the lines I needed instead of carrying a disc for each hole (which I did for the most part after finding this site before again settling on a core of versatile discs with a couple specialty discs sprinkled in for good measure).